Low molecular weight heparin in patients with acute myocardial infarction significantly reduces the frequency of major bleeding and reduces by half the mortality, compared with the previously recommended in European cardiology unfractionated heparin treatment.

The author of the meta-analysis is Dr. Eliano Pio Navarese cooperating with the medical team of prof. Jacek Kubica from the Department of Cardiology and Internal Medicine, Antoni Jurasz University Hospital nr 1 in Bydgoszcz.

In an article published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, the authors justify greater benefits from the use of enoxaparin in order to reduce the rate of complications and deaths. The results of this study became the basis of changes in the official recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology for the treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

What does this mean for patients? A better chance of survival and a reduction of complications associated with bleeding. The breakthrough discovery has already been recognized in the Western journals and has been successfully used in European hospitals specializing in the treatment of people with heart disease.

The analysis included ten studies involving a total of 16 286 patients with a mean follow-up of two months. The use of low molecular weight heparin was associated with a reduction in mortality (risk reduction 0.51, p <0.001) and the percentage of major bleeding (RR 0.68, p = 0.02) compared to the treatment used so far. Meta-regression analysis indicates that patients initial higher risk acquired greater benefits of the new method (r = 0.72, p = .02).